The true measure of faith

Habakkuk 2:4

Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

Beware of cosmetic faith – the type that flaunts itself when situations are conducive yet easily surrenders itself when plans go contrary. Faith should never be a facade that we use to disguise our true self, and reflect some idealized conception to the world – such faith is not from God, it is corrupt and has a tendency of corrupting those who keep practicing it.

True faith is the one that upholds God and stands by His Word irrespective of the circumstance. It is bold and never entertains fear, even if fear may seem to be boisterous.  

Never approach God from the angle of your fear, God is not in the business of being a distribution channel for products manufactured by the devil. God wants faith not fear – fear is from the devil, faith is from God – do not confuse the two! When the devil sets up barricades on your dreams, and your goals seem to evaporate under the scorching heat of reality, allow the Spirit of God to be the cooling shade that gives rest to your sorrows and cares.

True Faith is not practiced in the absence of opposition, neither does it guarantee immunity from social ills, rather, it is our response to the militancy with which we are confronted with here on earth. Faith is our default response to the shuttering reality of pain and hardship that so easily encumbers and saturates our daily lives. It does not guarantee stillness of the storm, it just guarantees your safety in the midst of the storm – it does not make suffering disappear, it keeps you throughout the suffering.

Faith should never be muzzled by fear – God does not demand anything from you for which he has not capacitated you for. Your faith should not be a reflection of your doubts, but rather an extension of your hope and trust in the immovable power of God. Situations may be tough but never allow a test to set up boundaries between you and your testimony.

This, i declare is the measure of true faith - may God bless you ! 

Nhlanhla Buthelezi 

The ultimate price of our redemption

2 Peter 2:24, 25

24 “He personally bore our sins in His (own) body on the tree (as on an altar and offered Himself on it), that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.

25 For you were going astray like (so many) sheep, but now you have come back to the Shepherd and Guardian ( The Bishop) of your souls”.

He who carries something needs to be stronger than the weight of what He is carrying. When you carry something you get personal and intimate with it, hands are used, strength is exercised, feelings are involved and sometimes pain is experienced-nevertheless, you keep on carrying it till you reach your destination. Jesus carried a Cross, but the Cross was just a piece of wood used to punish criminals, if we were to be biblically correct - Jesus carried you, your issues, your mess, your shame, your sin, your guilt, your history and your weakness. There are two ways in which we can approach the Cross. We can approach the Cross from the past, by looking at its history, this approach makes us confront the thousand criminals who died on the Cross before Jesus – all of them crucified for breaking social law; or we can approach the Cross from the future, by looking to the future for the benefits of what Jesus did on the Cross in the past. This approach forces us to look beyond history, beyond Golgotha and into tomorrow, where the same Jesus who was crucified comes riding on the clouds and wearing a crown, not the one given to Him by the Roman soldiers but the one recognized in His kingdom. Outside of Jesus the cross reminds us of our weakness, but the Cross with Jesus on it - points us to the physician who remedies that weakness. The Cross is a symbol of death, but with Jesus it points us to the source of life.

Pilgrims in a foreign land...

Hebrews 11:10

 

  “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

                                                                             ***

A pilgrim does not concern himself with current circumstances, because his focus and perspective is always onward, never backwards!

Pilgrims are ‘destination bound’– they are people on progress, their movement is not dependant on the severity of their current environments. Often in life, as Christians we forget that we are pilgrims in a foreign world. We become permanent tenants to a world that refuses to accept our identity as freely created beings belonging to a King whose Kingdom knows no geographical confines.

This world seems to inject us with poisonous venom that undermines our great commission and divine purpose. Pilgrims do not travel in the absence of pain, for during their travel the winds may be contrary, rains and storms may arise. Yet we are not to forget that this world in its current state is not our home, we are just pilgrims homeward bound,  called to greater dimensions of life, unmarred by sin and its slimy nature.

Are you tired and feeling helpless?

Do you feel burdened by the routine of life, death and illness, disappointment and fear?

I know of a home prepared for the victorious, wearied by life yet strengthened by their maker, pilgrims are people who live by principles that do not change or are easily influenced by others!

Such as:

Prayer – to navigate through the fierce winds that sink so many relation(ships)

The Bible – to find rooting and support to bear fruits of character in due season

We are not to have a mindset that is in tune with the social systems of this world. Pilgrims live by perspectives that are sharpened by faith in God!

Do not let your efforts to be cemented by despair, pick yourself up and continue travelling onward, you have a greater calling, one that is not to be validated or  assisted by men.

Awake my fellow pilgrim and let us travel through the thorns of life, for the Rose of Sharon aids our every step!

At His feet, on our knees

 Consider these few words of scripture:

1 Thesalonians 5:17

"Pray without ceasing.."

Many who have stood on their feet before the world, have failed to kneel before the feet of their Maker.

When life goes well with them they forget that feet may allow you to stand, but only knees enable you to keep on standing!

Knees that cannot bend before God have no right to stand before the world!

A man on his knees will always see further than a man on his feet, because Christianity is the only experience where knees will always be more powerful than feet.

Your feet may begin a journey towards a destination, but only your knees can ensure arrival!

On our knees we walk guided by Angelic Beings undetected by the naked eye!

On our knees the sick are healed...
The broken are built up....
The lost are found and the weak are strengthened.

Begin each day on your knees and let God show you the power of a prayerful life.

There are 7 reasons why we have been called to live on our knees as believers of Jesus Christ awaiting His coming,they are:

1: Prayer is what keeps us going
    When all that we depend on
    Has gone too far from our reach!

You are employed by the Grace of God,when that Job disappears,what has gone is the provision,not the provider!

By faith,prayer allows God to bless us with a different job even though it had seemed as if the previous one was all that we had!

Prayerful living perceives life through different perspectives-Where many see an obstacle,God sees a platform,where many see a dead end,God sees a breakthrough!

It is prayer that allows us to see things not as they are, but as seen by God from His position.

2: Prayer is oxygen,without it
     Suffocation is imminent!

You do not have to remind yourself of breathing, it is a reflex done effortlessly. However, should you stop inhaling oxygen,the worst is sure to follow - the same principle applies even in prayer.

3: Prayer is a connection of the
    Human to the divine

With the exception of Jesus, prayer is the only time God and man are one,two natures in one body-It is only when we continually pray that God dwells within us - Christology !

4: Prayer is life changing

No matter how frail, prayer is the only thing that converts the coldest of souls-Nothing else can - not a sermon, neither a song or a Revival seminar!

5: Prayer is spiritual power

Prayer gives the one praying power to overcome what would normally overcome him/her!

6: Prayer is priceless

Prayer costs nothing but your faithfulness, its effects may never be measured by monetary value - But it leaves you worth much more than silver and gold!

7: Prayer is the only thing the devil
    cannot do

The enemy can sing better than all congregations put together, he can preach better than revivalists - yet the one thing he fails to do is the very thing through which you defeat him - Prayer!

By

N Buthelezi

Who can walk?

Our text of consideration:

Genesis 5:8

  "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."

Enoch walked with God and he could not be found, he could not be found not because he had stopped walking-but he could not be found because he was now walking in a different world, a dimension inaccessible to human perception and reasoning.

Many of us can sing and shout, praise and preach but the question is, who can walk?

Who can walk when times are hard, nights are long and hours even longer?

Who can walk when in moments of distress and heartache, we succumb to the numbing and life exhausting peril of unbelief?

The pertinent question is whether you can walk where others have failed to even stand?

Can you walk where many have failed to even sit?

I want to take some time to look at the nature and scope of walking:

1: Walking is not a position, but rather a transition! 

               The difference between a "position" and a "transition".....

A position is informed by a tendency of being stationary! While on the other hand a transition is characterised by movement and momentum!

A man who walks can never be where he was yesterday, simply because walking displaces someone with respect to distance and geography!

With each day that you continue to walk, you get closer to your divine destiny - walking can never be backwards!

Walking has no pace - in other words, no man can dictate the rate at which you ought to walk, simply because walking is not a competition. 

We all walk differently yet what is of importance is that we all reach our respective destinations, irrespective of who began and who was the last to begin!

Lastly, it is the nature and not the length of the walk that matters!

When you walk with God, the manner in which you walk is determined by your attitude towards the journey - Begin to take your journey with God seriously and you will reach greater heights never before explored by any man!

 by 

Ev N Buthelezi

Living above the flood waters

Scripture Reference:

 

Genesis 6:1 - 9:17

No wound is beyond healing,no pain is everlasting and nobody remains a perpetual slave to failure,sickness and depression!

It is in the darkest moments of your life,that God unveils the greatest plans He has in store for you.Those plans may find you broken,they may find you frail and beyond the point of no faith - nevertheless,there is nothing that can destroy you without it getting prior approval from you!

There is something great that God wants to do in your life  - it does not depend on the presence of other individuals,nor does it have to be confirmed by them!

Trials may have battered you and left you without hope in tomorrow,you may have passed through a painful experience in your past - perhaps you are finding it difficult to reconcile your love for God,in relation to where you have been?

When the dreams once cherished and held dear, lay lifeless,as remnants of a shattered soul - bound by guilt and despair,self pity and imposed fear - God remains present when the presence of other things is stuck in our past.

Today,take a conscious decision to live above the flood waters. 

Where your vessel can sail above the storms of life,when all else is ravaged by failure -
above the temporal failures of life and the life threatening conditions of sin,it is not too late to construct your ark.

Build in due time - on your knees with a prayerful life you can stand taller than the shadows that intimidate progress and personal development!

Let God direct your ship,let Him ensure that it stays afloat,when life is moved from surface to deep waters - your safety and that of your family can be guaranteed only in Jesus Christ.

God bless you

Ev N Buthelezi

Divine Purpose...in spite of what has been!

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord,"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,plans to give you hope and a future."

God says,"For I".He does not say "For they"!

Your life is governed by divine destiny not destructive destiny-God's purpose for your life weighs far more than the hideous intentions of your foes!

Plans you cannot now comprehend,have been strategicaly put in place-They are not subject to man's approval!

God's purpose for your life is deeper than any pain you may have experienced in the pit of self pity and shame!

These plans are one dimensional,i.e:

*They are designed to form your content and later inform your context!
*They are designed to ensure that no harm,human/demonic befalls you!
*They are designed to create,facilitate and sustain your progress!
*They are designed to reveal and prepare you for your divine assignment!

Live within God's purpose for your life,stop being bound by the bonds of visionlessness and apathy!

Your reason for living is deeper than the trials the enemy has thrown your way!

God's plans for you are not resolutions but objectives!
Covenant bound and promise secured,your life is not a series of accidental occurences-every blessing is deliberate!

Today,reconsider your reason for living,in relation to the divine plans that God has for your life!

Blessings

Ev N Buthelezi
071 175 1724